Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2011

Nominally a tripartite (Serb, Croat, Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim]) presidency with a chair that rotates every eight months; members in 2011 were Nebojsa Radmanovic (Serb; chairman until July 10), Zeljko Komsic (Croat; chairman from July 10), and Bakir Izetbegovic (Bosniak). Final authority resides in the Office of the High Representative and EU Special Representative, Valentin Inzko (Austria)

Head of government:

Prime Minister Nikola Spiric

The government of Bosnia and Herzegovina was deadlocked throughout 2011 as the country’s six principal political parties failed until year-end to reach an agreement on the formation of the national government in the wake of the October 2010 general election. Several attempts to form a new government foundered partly because of disputes regarding the distribution of cabinet posts among Bosnian Croats. The resultant paralysis represented the country’s longest political crisis since the end of the four-year war in 1995. In the meantime, the acting government was both unwilling and unable to institute the reforms necessary to position Bosnia for entry into the EU. On December 28 the parties ended the 15-month stalemate by agreeing to form a coalition government, with Croat Vjekoslav Bevanda at its head, that would take power in January 2012.

The lack of compromise between political parties within the country’s two entities—the Bosniak-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska (RS)—for several years had retarded progress toward European integration. International observers expressed concern that a renewal of conflict was impending, and in May the high representative in Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, reported to the UN Security Council that Bosnia was on the “brink of collapse.” He warned that the RS’s insistence on holding a referendum regarding the federation’s level of authority threatened the country’s integrity. In its annual progress report on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Commission noted “little progress” in reforms necessary for entry to the EU, stating that the European Council was far from reaching consideration of accepting Bosnia’s application. On the other hand, Bosniaks gained a measure of closure in May when Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, the suspected mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre, was apprehended after a decade at large.

In an effort to avert losing €96 million ($132 million) in aid, the acting government in October agreed to implement a list of EU-stipulated steps toward reform of public administration, the judiciary, and infrastructure. More than €8 million ($11 million) was earmarked for demining and assistance to refugees of the 1992–95 war. Also in October the Bosnian parliament began procedures to amend the constitution regarding discrimination against minorities, such as Jews and Roma (Gypsies), seeking elected office.

The economy showed subdued and uneven growth. Unemployment continued to hover at about 43%, and the International Labour Organization reported an unemployment rate of 57.9% among Bosnia’s youths 15–24 years of age. Observers iterated concerns regarding the lack of administrative and legal procedures aimed at confronting widespread corruption and inflammatory nationalist rhetoric. During the first nine months of 2011, industrial production grew significantly in the RS but only slightly in the Federation, by 6.8% and 1.8%, respectively. Overall, the economy was projected to grow nearly 2.8%, and Bosnia’s central bank expected the economy to show further improvement in 2012.

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the federation agreed upon a two-year research project on fossil-fuel exploration. The RS signed similar agreements with Russia’s state-owned Zarubezhneft and Serbia’s NIS (majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom). Geologists estimated potential oil reserves in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia at about 70 million bbl apiece.

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